The LTTA objective is success on all fronts: local artists loving their classroom work, teachers embracing and adapting to the challenge of differentiated instruction, and students who show their intelligences through creative projects and teaching. The First Nations, Metis and Inuit youth are one focus of our work in Fort McMurray- a group of young people who are, in many ways, carrying the weight of the residential school experience that their parents and grandparents survived.

For me, it’s been a long couple of the years of education. All the things I didn’t know fill my head, now. I consider protocol in FMNI communities. I remember the importance of time. I think about how to be a better listener (with more than a New Year resolution commitment.) I wake up dreaming of a new way of explaining what I know so that others will follow along because they now know it to be true. I try to remember that balance is the key. Time for family, for writing, for meditating, for moving, for being still is just as important as time for reaching LTTA objectives.

I imagine it’s a familiar refrain from many of us at this time of year when evaluation and assessment of our lives creep into our thoughts via a human tradition of starting afresh.

I’ve had a terrific few days in Fort McMurray meeting, meeting, meeting people! I arrived on Aboriginal Day and spent the afternoon with my co-workers and friends, Anastasia and Shelley, at Heritage Park where we ate bannock and fried fish and watched the children, adults and elders gather in community to celebrate. That evening there was more celebration when we were welcomed to the Mentorship program’s year-end celebration. A cooperative program, it’s spearheaded by Julia McDougall, a public school teacher and amazing woman. Thirty-nine aboriginal children gathered for 35 weeks this year in mixed age groupings to explore the art, stories, and music of the aboriginals from the Fort McMurray area.

On Tuesday, we had THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. In an amazing move of brilliance, the provincial government has funded an arts-education organization 1.3 million dollars over three years to bring the arts into Aboriginal student’s lives during the school days, after school programs and potentially weekend community programs. It’s the first time in the history of Learning Through the Arts that a justice department has undertaken such a vision-forward approach to the reduction of crime in the community and the increasing of safety. It’s a thrill to be involved in a program that will support Fort McMurray artists and Fort McMurray students.

Tuesday evening was a celebration in Fort McKay of an amazing principal who is moving on to work with the Northlands School Division.

We met on Wednesday with Alice Marten our coordinator on the ground and a lovely woman. We’ve been in meetings, too, with artists who are interested in working in the schools. An amazing turn of events for the end of the school year!

If you’d like to know more about this program or Learning Through the Arts generally, you can contact me.

This is a friendly group of people who believe that The Mitten expands as more people ask to crawl inside to get warm. For the most part it seems that writers who create for an audience of children and young adults demonstrate the kindness and hope that steers them in their writing process. It is understood that while all themes can be explored in children’s literature, that the author keep her eyes on hope is essential. It’s part of what separates the writers for youth and the writers for adult world; the distance between hope and cynicism.

This year we had a large Alberta contingent and a strong Canadian one. Debby Waldman and Joan Marie Galat repped the Edmonton area. Jan Markley from Calgary showed up. Several authors from Ontario, including the famous Marsha Skrypuch.

If you’re a writer who is looking for a way to move to the next level of publishing or confidence, I’d recommend first, a membership and, as a goal, joining us at next year’s winter conference. (I’ve been once to the summer conference in LA and it was terrific! Alas, the timing doesn’t usually work out for me- vacation time!)

I also met a number of artists working with other programs, (primarily theatre groups), who are part of the Artists in Education roster compiled by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

In talking with teachers one theme seemed consistent, sometimes an artist in residence is a good investment, sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.

It seems these are your options as a school booking an artist in residence:

1. A performing group: It may be less risky to bring in a group of performers than to have an individual artist work in classrooms, because a well-formed system is in place. Your students, then, work within the system. Very little one-on-one instruction happens, but the group dynamic is explored.

2. An individual artist in residence. This, to me, can be a great option for instruction of a particular art form. If the artist-educator is experienced in classroom management and has deconstructed their art form to a level that is appropriate for the age and stage of each learner, this can be a wonderful learning experience. My best experiences as an artist in residence have been in classrooms where the teachers are engaged and supportive of the artistic process. The success of an artist in residence hinges on many factors- the attitude of the teacher, the experience of the artist, the artist’s confidence with the material and the students, and the students interest in the activities that are being explored.

3. The third option, now, is Learning Through the Arts which takes some of the risk out of individual artists in a school. With LTTA, the school chooses several art forms (and artist educators) to work in their classrooms. The artist educators are trained in creating lesson plans that combine the art form with core curriculum concepts and the artists are mentored by more senior artists throughout their terms in schools. (They also provide training in classroom management techniques!) If a school is unhappy with a match, an artist can be substituted. As an artist, the LTTA model provides a unique creative challenge and a revenue stream that doesn’t require a commitment of a week or two weeks of full-time work.

What I know for sure is that every option has advantages and disadvantages and the success of an artist in the school often has a whole lot to do with factors that can arise from the school or the artist.

My suggestion is that a school carefully look at the make-up of its staff members and their attitudes towards sharing their classroom with a guest artist. Decision making should involve a group of staff members. Residency objectives should align with the values of the school. And decision-makers should carefully consider an artist’s commitment to their art form (is the artist currently actively engaged with the art form?) and the artist’s experience (has the artist had training or enough experience in the classroom that poor classroom management will not detract from the art experience?). How will student learning regarding this art form be assessed? Will students have had enough time with the artist to incorporate the lessons they’ve learned? Schools should also ask- How will we be able to extend this experience? Will the school create an anthology of student writing? Will it create a video of small group drama that has been created after the residence is completed? I think it’s essential to consider the impact a residency will have the student and parent community after its conclusion.

We have a month prior to the Artist in Residence, Alberta for the Arts, grant deadline. If you’d like assistance in pulling together a Learning Through the Arts grant proposal or would like to talk to me about an Artist in Residence program, I’d be happy to talk to you.

We’ve worked to encourage voice in the student’s writing while I’ve been here. Drama has been our window into the world of creative stories with voice. In Division I our retellings of the Three Goats Gruff had teenager penguins that wore cool black sunglasses and liked to hip-hop dance! In Division II we used drama to play with ideas that became the basis for short stories about characters encountering animals that have escaped from the zoo.

I had this great epiphany today as I was explaining that including character thoughts in writing adds VOICE to the writing.

“Here, what if you think about that voice in your head that warns you or gives you witty things to say that you know it’s not appropriate to say? That’s your VOICE. It is a symptom and indication of your personality. Include the voices in your character’s heads in your writing and you’ll certainly increase the voice!”

I thought it was brilliant. I’ve been thrilled to hear the student’s writing. Oh…we also created videos of some of their drama. Kids mostly love to see themselves on the big screen!

Thanks, Jackson Heights for such a wonderful visit!

What does it look like? Groups of students will be making commercials to “sell” their glider (paper airplane) or Mixture Separation Device (various techniques to separate the specific elements in birdseed).

Clearly we’re coupling Science concepts with drama/language arts. The students will be creating scripts, asking scientific questions as well as the questions writers ask before developing a commercial that they will work as a team to build and film.

I’ll show a clip of a commercial on February 5, the day after our final day of shooting!

If you’re interested in knowing more about the LTTA model or about an artist in residence program, send me an e-mail and I’ll fill you in.

Mar’ce

I bought this coconut. I wasn’t sure, exactly, what I’d do with it. I’d never in fact bought a coconut before- at least not in North America. I think I bought it because I wanted a shift in my every day. I looked for recipes of how to use fresh coconut. And I discovered through experimentation that fresh grated coconut tastes better after it’s cooked than before and that you can replace just about any dried unsweetened coconut with fresh. My blog here or here has the results of my cupcake recipe.

I also thought of the people in Haiti, not that I’ve been there, but I spent two months in Southeast Asia and the poverty I witnessed in Cambodia came back to me in pictures and smells and coconuts. I am saddened by the devastation, but I don’t think those words are enough. Just like I haven’t been able to adequately express the experience of traveling in Asia for two months, I cannot express my heartache over Haitian’s heart break.

I’m working on revisions of The Cake Princess, feeling vulnerable the way my characters do- that’s my news. I guess the coconut was a diversion down a familiar path of thought.

Have you ever felt like maybe the point to doing a task is no longer in sight? Like, maybe, getting above 90 per cent on every exam is not important, even though it used to be the focus of your life? Or how about hanging out with someone is the last thing you want to do because that person is, (God how clearly you see it now), really a negative influence in your life?

And you know that in-between place when you know the truth and the reality of it all, but you’re not ready to do something about it?

I know I’m being ambiguous about the details. That’s necessary.

What is also necessary is that I tell you that I’ve decided to take action. And what brought me to that? A realization that I can’t endure static. Static is remaining in a house that’s crumbling around me.

And what brought me to this understanding? Over months I accumulated stress that created a consuming ache in my shoulder and neck. I started writing about the issues that were causing it. I was considering what to do. When the earthquake hit in Haiti, I, finally, cried. I cried for the children who were abandoned and for the mothers who’d lost so much and for the fathers and brothers who were only sure that they needed to help someone, somewhere. I donated money. And then I began to realize that my feelings of helplessness about my own life were a trap I could release. Difficult.

So I found the inspiration to bake again. And I started it all from scratch- fresh coconut, grated by my hands, folded tenderly into a beautiful batter. The smell enveloped me. I only ate one without frosting and one with- just to experience the wonderful taste. I shared with friends and friends of friends and I asked them to text the numbers that gave money to people who didn’t have homes anymore, who were crying for a loss that was more immediate and longer lasting than mine. And I felt better. Cake can do that for a girl like me.

The Coconut Cupcakes are vegan but can be adapted for the non-vegans among us. I just like the idea of vegan because, as you know, I like rules. They keep order in life. And sometimes I need order, especially when my world is crashing.
Ingredients

* 1/2 cup coconut oil
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup coconut milk
* 1/4 cup soy milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon coconut extract
* 1 cup flour, all purpose
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup unsweetened coconut (grated raw or dried)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over very low heat. After it’s melted, turn off the heat but use it before it solidifies. (you can substitute canola oil)
3. In a medium bowl, combine the melted coconut oil, sugar, coconut milk, soy milk, vanilla, coconut extract. Mix until homogeneous (love that word!)
4. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until smooth. Add the grated coconut and incorporate.
5. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, until the top springs back.
6. Cool, then frost.

Lime Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

* 1 cup of butter or 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening and 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine
* 3 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Directions

1. Beat the butter or shortening/margarine until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat 3 minutes more before you add the vanilla and lime juice. Beat for another 5 to 7 minutes. It will all be beautifully fluffy so that you can now pipe it onto the cupcakes. (If it’s too soft, give it 15 minutes in the refrigerator).